Tim Jager
Senior Manager, Meradia
Tim Jager is a Senior Manager at Meradia, a global leader in consulting for investment management operations and technology. Tim leads Meradia’s Client Experience practice and helps firms realize the full benefits of optimized operations. With over 30 years of industry experience, Tim excels in aligning business and technology teams to a common purpose. He has a proven history of delivering strategic, transformative projects on time and within budget, including enterprise architecture and data management, data transformation and system design, master and reference data management, global security master management, global account master management, global trade flow management, client reporting transformation, post-acquisition integrations, global system conversions, custom design and development and third-party integrations. Prior to joining Meradia, Tim served as an Associate Director for Macquarie Group where he was responsible for client-facing business technology, business analysis and development, global architecture and delivery of core systems and functionality. Prior to Macquarie, he served as the VP of Investment Systems for Lincoln Financial and as VP of Investment Systems, Lead Architect for Delaware Investments.
Suzanne Smore
Chief Operating Officer of Risk, State Street Global Advisors
Suzanne is a Managing Director and Chief Risk Operating Officer at State Street Global Advisors as well as a member of the firm’s Senior Leadership Team. She manages Risk Infrastructure and Counterparty Credit Risk. Suzanne oversees transformation and change management of large-scale technology and regulatory initiatives. She also leads a team of analysts responsible for the management and development of credit risk policies and procedures, oversight and monitoring of counterparties, and comprehensive reporting. Suzanne has deep credit experience in both front office and risk management. She earned her MBA from Boston University’s Questrom Business School and BA from Hamilton College. She has been a speaker on fixed income and risk industry panels as well as a contributor to Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) and Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions (JRMFI) publications. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and earned her CFA ESG Certificate. She is also involved in the arts and serves as a board member for the Boston Ballet Volunteer Association.
Sohel Hussain
Director of Investment Operations, Meyer Memorial Trust
Sohel Hussain is the Director of Investment Operations at Meyer Memorial Trust, a $1.1billion private foundation located in Portland, OR. He is responsible for the investment team's operational infrastructure, data & technology, ESG/performance reporting, treasury function and vendor management. Before Meyer, Sohel was the Manager and Head of Middle Office for North America at PIMCO in Newport Beach, California, a $2.2 trillion asset management firm with a concentration in fixed income. He led a team of seven managing the daily trade operations workflow and other high-level middle office tasks and projects. Prior to PIMCO, Sohel worked at a number of hedge funds in New York, including SECOR Asset Management supporting its quantitative-based hedge fund and portfolio solutions business as the operations team lead. Sohel graduated from Hofstra University in 2011 with a BBA in Accounting and from Harvard University, Extension School with a Masters of Liberal Arts in Finance in 2021. Sohel joined Meyer in April 2021.
Simon Zais
Senior Consultant, Capco
Simon Zais is a senior consultant with Capco specializing in Wealth Management. He has experience in both the front and back office, using his broad experience to execute meaningful change across organizations. Simon holds a degree with honors from Baruch College and is a CAIA charter holder. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, two young kids, and two old dogs.
Scott Kurland
Managing Director, SS&C Insurance Solutions
Scott Kurland is a Managing Director at SS&C Technologies responsible for overseeing product and technology priorities for Singularity – SS&C’s next-generation, integrated insurance investment analytics, operations and accounting system. A graduate of the Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Kurland brings over 25 years of experience developing and commercializing front, middle and back-office technology solutions for the financial industry, leveraging the latest AI-driven technologies such as machine learning, robotic process automation, predictive analytics and natural language processing to drive continuous process improvement, automation and operational efficiency. Prior to joining SS&C, Mr. Kurland was a co-founder and Managing Director at ESP Technologies, Inc., where he developed and patented post-trade aggregation, clearing and settlement technology (STC) and an Electronic Algorithm Routing Network (EARN) for the global asset management community, which was subsequently sold to ITG, Inc. in 2010.
Russ Grimaldi
Chief Compliance, Horizon Kinetics
Russ has over 16 years of experience as an attorney and compliance officer in the financial industry, primarily counseling registered investment advisers on the management of registered and exempt investment companies, including hedge funds, mutual funds, closed-end funds, ETFs, private equity funds, separately managed accounts and European UCITs. While generally focused on traditional asset management, he has been at the forefront of the institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Russ currently serves as the Chief Compliance Officer and Associate General Counsel at Horizon Kinetics LLC, a registered investment adviser with assets of approximately $7 billion, where he oversees the Firm’s compliance program and supports all legal and regulatory functions including the Firm’s substantial allocations in digital assets and mining. Russ is a member of the Firm’s Cyber & Information Security, Crypto-Security, Valuation and Pricing and Liquidity operating committees and he is the Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer for the Firm’s offshore funds. Russ holds a BA in Legal Studies from Quinnipiac University (cum laude) and a JD from Albany Law School.
Patrice Trichon
Head of Marketing, Client Reporting and Digital, Brown Brothers Harriman
As Head of Marketing, Client Reporting & Digital, Patrice is responsible for Sales Enablement and Branding for Investment Management, in addition to leading the Marketing Operations and Client Reporting teams. Prior to joining Brown Brothers Harriman, Patrice was a Managing Director at 1919 Investment Counsel, LLC and Head of Marketing. She designed and administered the firm’s overall marketing and communications strategy. She was a member of the firm’s Operating Committee and led several of 1919’s strategic initiatives and the Editorial Committee. She began her Marketing career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1988 where she held several different roles. Most recently, she was the Global Head of Fund Reporting and Marketing Services, in the Consumer and Investment Management Division in New York. In these roles, she led Strategic Client Experience and Service initiatives, as well as digital and brand transformations. Prior to working at Goldman, Sachs & Co., she was an internal auditor and business analyst at Deloitte. Patrice’s career has focused on providing a strategic centralized approach to coordinate marketing, brand, sales, and reporting strategy to drive growth and improve overall client experience. Over the past few years, Patrice has participated in panels and been referenced in articles on Marketing Infrastructure topics, the need for scale and efficiency in the process when developing content/data for multiple deliverables. She is an active member of the Marketing Council for the UJA-Federation of New York and the CMO Roundtable at the Family Wealth Alliance.
Matthew Fetta
Chief Operating Officer, CoinFund
Matt is the Chief Operating Officer of CoinFund and focuses on managing the daily operations of the fund while introducing efficient and scalable processes to support growth. Prior to joining CoinFund he worked at the London Stock Exchange as the COO of the Global Interest Rate Swap Clearing Business where he managed the daily operations of the clearing house and launched a digital products group focused on providing data and analytics solutions ot the global customer base. Matt also spent a decade at a large Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund, Citadel Asset Management, where he joined as an initial member of the Global Fixed Income Business and built and managed the non-investment functions of the fund supporting AUM growth from $300mm to $8bn+. Matt has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance from American University, and an Advanced Certificate in Financial Risk Management from New York University
Matt Weisman
VP of Business Development, Arcesium
Matt is directly responsible for driving Arcesium’s growth within the Institutional Asset Management segment by building relationships and supporting our clients through the delivery of robust post-investment and enterprise data management technology and services. Prior to joining Arcesium, he served as Senior Account Executive, Asset Management Solutions forBroadridge – a role in which he drove the growth and expansion efforts into the traditional assetmanagement market by providing front-to-back investment management technology to asset managers.Matt received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing from Indiana University’s Kelley School ofBusiness.
Kenneth Lamar
Principal Partner, Lamar Associates LLC
Kenneth Lamaris the founder and principal partner at Lamar Associates LLC and works as an independent senior advisor the Deloitte Centre for Regulatory Strategies advising firms onregulatory reporting and data management issues. Mr. Lamar also is a member Axion SLs Advisory Board. He served as a Senior Advisorto the Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York providing advice and counsel, namely on emerging data collections, developing data quality programs, and data management issues. Prior to this role, he was the head of the Statistics Function at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in which he was responsible for ofthe data collections systems and data quality programs associated with these data collections.Mr. Lamar established and led the Regulatory Review Program, conducting on-site examinations of regulatory reports. He held several leadership positions in the Federal Reserve System that supported the design of the Systems’ data collections, the associated quality assurance programs, and the technical implementation of data collections. Mr. Lamar has experience in developing data management practices and has worked on data maturity models with CMMI. He has championed leading practices for financial firms to provide high quality data to regulators and other data collectors. Concepts he has developed for industrywide adoption covers accountability models, quality assurance functions, point of origin reviews, and enhanced internal audit programs. Mr. Lamar’s 40 years of experience in leading data operations includes building data ingestionsystems and data quality programs. As part of his leadership roles, he has managed closerelationships with other banking agencies, trade groups, and financial services firms. He possesses deep technical knowledge of Federal Reserve data collections including, financial statement and holding company reporting requirement; financial stability data collections, monetary policy data, cross-border and international position data; and counterpartyexposure reporting. The scope of his knowledge also covers primary dealer reporting, foreignexchange and derivative reporting;and legal entity reporting.
Julia Bardmesser
Head of Data, Architecture and CRM development, Voya Investment Management
Julia Bardmesser is Senior Vice President, Head of Data, Architecture and Salesforce Development at Voya. In her role Julia is leading the transformation of Voya's enterprise assets in Data, Architecture and Salesforce to increase agility and speed to market by eliminating redundant data silos and consolidating and automating data processes to deliver key insights from proprietary data; and to reduce costs through re-use and infrastructure simplification. Prior to joining Voya Julia was a Global Head of Data Integration at Deutsche Bank, where she led the implementation of global metadata management platform that enabled data lineage and robust front to back data quality measurement. Julia has over twenty years of experience in data management, data governance, architecture and cross-platform solution delivery in the financial industry. She also worked at Citi, FINRA, Freddie Mac, Thomson Financial Services, Bear Stearns and Bloomberg L.P. Julia has a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the New York University.
Joanne Kane
Chief Industry Operations Officer, Investment Company Institute
Joanne Kane is the chief industry operations officer of the Investment Company Institute. Kane joined ICI in 2013 and is responsible for the full range of operational issues facing the Institute and its members, for facilitating operations-related initiatives with industry stakeholders, and collaborating with stakeholders to pursue and achieve related regulatory, legislative, and public policy goals. Kane has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, including extensive knowledge of transfer agency and compliance. Prior to joining ICI, Kane served as vice president of transfer agent governance and administration for Columbia Management Investors Services, Corp. Earlier in her career, she served as assistant vice president of transfer agent Compliance with IXIS Asset Management Services. Kane graduated magna cum laude from Providence College with a BS in finance.
Hannah Herold
Director of ESG Research, American Century Investments
Hannah Herold leads American Century Investments’ ESG and Investment Stewardship team’s research efforts. Since joining the team in 2018, Ms. Herold has worked closely with the firm’s investment teams in the establishment of its ESG integration framework and development of screening and assessment tools. In her role, Ms. Herold manages the team’s research pipeline and has additional research responsibilities primarily focused on global large- and mid-cap equities and human capital management. Before joining American Century, Ms. Herold was an associate and team leader at Bernstein Global Wealth Management. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Vanderbilt University.
Evan Fire
Chief Operating Officer, Pzena Investment Management
Mr. Fire joined the firm in 2003 and has held several roles during his tenure, including CIOO and CISO, responsible for the oversight of the Operations and Information Technology groups at the firm. Prior to joining Pzena, Mr. Fire was a Relationship Management Assistant at Brown Brothers Harriman, and a Client Service Representative at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc. He earned a B.S. in Management and Finance from Binghamton University.
Dr. Yue (Nina) Chen
Executive Deputy Superintendent, Climate Risk Division, New York Department of Financial Services
Dr. Yue (Nina) Chen is the inaugural Executive Deputy Superintendent of Climate Risk Division at the New York State Department of Financial Services. Under Nina’s leadership, DFS became the first U.S. financial regulator to establish a holistic set of expectations for banks and insurers to integrate the financial risks from climate change into corporate governance, business strategies, risk management, and disclosure. Before joining DFS, Nina was the Nature Conservancy’s Director of Conservation Investments in New Jersey then New York. Nina also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Climate Risk Steering Group at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. Nina received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Certificate in Conservation and Environmental Sustainability from Columbia University
Craig Peretz
Chief Financial Officer, Golden Eagle Strategies
Craig Peretz is the Chief Financial Officer for Golden Eagle Strategies, LLC and has been actively involved in the operational and compliance side of the Alternative Investment Industry since 1988. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Alfred University where he is Vice Chair of the Finance committee and is a registered Cayman Islands Fund Director. He earned an MBA at The Stern School of Business at New York University in 1994 and completed his undergraduate studies at Alfred University in 1988.
Bradley Jones
Head of ESG Strategy, AQR Capital Management
Brad Jones (He/Him/His) is a Managing Director and Head of ESG Strategy at AQR Capital Management. In this role, Brad is responsible for setting and executing AQR’s ESG agenda in partnership with the Head of ESG Research, as well as overseeing the firm’s responsible investment distribution initiatives. Previously, Brad was the Head of AQR’s Retirement and Sub-Advisory businesses. He led AQR’s efforts to design and deliver retirement solutions to defined contribution plans in the US and worked with large retirement and retail mutual fund platforms to offer AQR’s investment strategies in a sub-advised structure. Brad is a member of the Advisory Council for the Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives, an independent think tank focused on strengthening retirement security. Prior to joining AQR, he was an Analyst in the Portfolio Consulting Group of Barclays Wealth. Brad earned an A.B. in economics from Harvard University.
Ben Harper
Managing Director, Head of ESG, Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners
Ben Harper is Head of Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) for Stonepeak, a leading alternative investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real assets. In his role, Ben oversees the firm’s continued efforts to scale its ESG program. Prior to Stonepeak, Ben spent more than 20-years with Zurich Insurance where he served in multiple roles, most recently as Head of Sustainability. Ben began his career as a consulting engineer where he was responsible for managing complex environmental assessment and remediation projects. Ben currently sits on several advisory boards including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) - Infrastructure Resilience Division – which was established to develop a unified approach to advancing the concepts of resilience within lifeline and infrastructure systems. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Extreme Weather and Climate Change Adaptation, responsible for developing resilience practices in the transportation sector, committee member for the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI) and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investments (PRI), Infrastructure Advisory Committee. Ben holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Arthur Melkonian
Chief Operating Officer, Equinox Partners
Arthur Melkonian previously worked at State Street Co. and International Fund Services. Mr. Melkonian joined Equinox Partners in 2011, and is the COO overseeing all fund and business operations. Equinox Partners is a global value, registered investment manager with a 35+ year track record. Mr. Melkonian holds a B.S. in International Business Relations from Johnson & Wales University and an MBA in Finance from Nova Southeastern University.
Adam Salter
Solutions Consultant, SS&C Technologies
Adam Salter is a Senior Solutions Consultant at SS&C Advent. He works closely with hedge funds, assets managers, and fund administrators as they evaluate new operating models for middle and back office technology and services. In addition, he works with existing Clients to present software workflows to assist in achieving operational Alpha. Areas of expertise include complex derivatives, bank loans/credit and debt processing, reconciliation, and asset servicing. Prior to that, he worked at Fitch Ratings as a Business Analyst improving processes in swap optimization. He is a graduate of De Montfort University in the UK and currently lives in NYC.
